The BIG one

Greetings fellow Generals,

I’d like to introduce myself; my name is Steven and I am a hobby butterfly. (This is a technical term, meaning, a hobbyist who likes to flit from hobby to hobby without ever accomplishing anything worth while, there is a much less technical term for this type of hobbyist: Game wh…. Well let’s just say that the second word rhymes with “more”)
I started out like every other old fart of the tabletop gaming hobby, with Warhammer and 40k, back in the glory days of GW, where men were men and to get a game in, you had to walk 20 miles through snow… And all uphill!

Back in those days, the tabletop gaming scene was ruled by one company and with good reason; they had a kick ass game system and had a monthly hobby magazine that was worth the price of subscription; Filled with battle reports and background fluff and oodles of beautifully painted minis.

This magazine was essential to fanboys and tabletop geeks because in the pre apocalyptic era of Before Internet, all we had as a source of social media and content update were these wonderful magazines. There was even a term coined for when painter’s block sets in: WDS, White Dwarf Syndrome; a malady whereby constant exposure to the pages of a white dwarf magazine will result in painting lethargy and an unwillingness to continue in the face of overwhelming shinyness.
Fast forward to today and the tabletop gaming industry has grown to be a juggernaut, with billion dollar companies all vying to earn your 20(0) dollars every month. It is an amazing time to be a tabletop hobbyist and the future of our hobby is wide open to growth in ways that we cannot even forsee; will intergration with video games happen? Will digital printing make its mark? Will we finally be able to buy good quality prepainted minis?

Anyway, those undoubtably important questions are for another article, what I AM here to talk about (in this blog) is the painting aspect of our hobby. It is the part of the hobby that is the hardest and yet will yield the most in regards to bragging rights and epeen goodness. I am wonderfully blessed that GW has decided to regain its senses and has come back into the light of all things good and bright in that they have released a series of amazing how-to-paint video tutorials on YouTube. If you have not checked them out, please do so, Duncan does a wonderful job of teaching us all how to paint and the various technics involved. I cannot recommend them enough.
That said, Duncan is somewhat limited in that GW is trying to sell GW products through those tutorials (wonderful as they are), I on the other hand am not likewise restrained and am capable of talking about painting and products of the non GW persuasion.

That, my fellow Generals will be the direction of my topics; the painting aspect of the hobby with a Nod to fast tips and tricks to get your minis looking good and on the battlefield in as little time as possible… Heaven knows reinforcements are always welcome.

Until the next article fellow generals, may you see your enemies driven before you and hear the Lamentations of their women!